Fall Festivals and Events

We have had such a busy, fun October! true to my Autumn buck list I have been trying to do lots of the things I love most about Fall and we have been very busy visiting friends, enjoying the outdoors, traveling and attending festivals! Here are some belated photos from some of the things we've been to and it is just a sampling of a few of the great things Atlanta has to offer this time of year. I decided if I waited to share these with my regular monthly photo post it would be waaayyyy too long so here is a photo heavy post a bit early.

First of all we attended the "Fest of Ale" at the Atlanta Botanical gardens. We are definitely getting good use of our membership and are going at least two more times this month (after already having gone two or three times in October). The Fest of Ale is every Thursday evening in October (you still have time to go!) and it was such a fun and laid back event, I highly recommend it! It is a chance to enjoy the gardens at night while sampling a variety of beers and listening to some great bluegrass music. It also great if you have little ones because it gives them a great place to run around.

Next on my list of events is Flux night in Atlanta. This is one I had to miss last year because I had a new born and I was bound and determined to go back this year! I enjoyed a rare baby free evening since Eric parents were in town and they and Eric kept Echo for the night. It was fun to be able to enjoy the art while unencumbered by a baby but I was sure missing her by the end of the night and was rushing home to see her! For those of you that don't know,  Flux is a pretty cool installation and performance art event that happens yearly in the Castleberry Hill neighborhood of Atlanta. Unfortunately I lost my program for the event so I can't tell you much about the specific exhibits but here are some photos from the event in any case. 

This was a pretty cool performance pice about dementia, she would write on the wall with water and it would slowly disappear.  Then she would start the process all over again

These were the town criers, you could write or text them a message and they would call it out for the whole crowd to hear. 

We visited the lantern shop (it was free but still called a shop) where we were given two minutes to choose lanterns made from dozens of types of commercial packaging. I chose Coke to be a good Georgia girl :-) 

Lastly I have a few photos from the Sunday in the Park festival in Oakland Cemetery. This may be my favorite festival ever and that's saying something because I've been to a lot! It features a great kids area, fantastic music and dance, really cool art and other local vendors and a Victorian costume contest. The whole festival has an overall Victorian feel but there was also Irish dancing, bagpipe and bluegrass music and a lot of steampunk influence.

My only shot of some of the extraordinary costumes, I was too shy to take many pictures of people

Living statue

They opened up the crypts so you can go inside for one day only. 

Echo and I enjoying bubbles in the children's section

They have a teddy bear tea as well, I think she will really like this next year. Right now she doesn't seem impressed.

Mostly Echo loved running around the cemetery!

I also attended a BBQ festival in Marietta with some great friends but sadly I didn't get any pictures.  Even with All I've been doing in October there are still so many things I have wanted to do and didn't get to because of schedule conflicts. There is so much fun to be had it's hard to squeeze it all in!

Living Walls 2013

Living Walls is a really awesome public art event hosted in Atlanta every year. I usually try to go to it but missed last year due to being very tired and pregnant :-) This year I was back with baby in tow! 

Living Walls consists primarily of a great many murals painted around the Atlanta area, generally clustered in a certain are each year. This series of events and art displays also includes lectures, gallery shows and block parties each year to celebrate and raise awareness of public art and urban renewal.  This is a very picture heavy post but there is so much amazing art to be seen at these events! Here is just a small sampling of the work featured in Living Walls this year. 

These first photos are of us going to the main event party which included gallery shows by the featured artists and lectures on urban renewal, Echo was a trooper to tag along!

The main event party was hosted at the Goat Farm again this year (I'm told it was held elsewhere last year). The Goat Farm is such an amazing space, I'm always in awe of it! I particularly love the the way the design events, especially the lighting. Everything took on a really magical feel thanks to the way this was handled. 

Above you can see the stage where the lectures took place and bellow is a painting by one of the featured artists.

The main event party really left us wanting more and we couldn't wait to see the murals around town. Today was my mom's Birthday so we decided to take the morning to do a tour of Living Walls murals and then grab some lunch, here is some of what we saw.

Most of this years murals were in the Grant Park and East Atlanta area (some of the ones I have pictured are from previous years as well though. For more info on Living Walls or for a map of the murals check out their website http://livingwallsatl.com/.

After all that sightseeing we worked up quite an appetite and headed over to East Atlanta's Delia's Chicken Sausage Stand. This place is fantastic but that should come as no surprise as it was opened by restauranteurs of The Porter in Little 5 Points and The Flying Biscuit, both Atlanta staples.

I enjoyed a chicken chorizo taco plate and an ice cold Coke and Echo enjoyed playing with the salt and pepper shakers :-) My mom and dad got a chili cheese sausage called the Hot Mess and a Philly cheese sausage respectively and everyone loved their meal. You can check out the menu on their website here http://www.thesausagestand.com/. I will definitely be going back when I can take Eric :-)

What a fun way to be a tourist in your own city, I love that Atlanta is such a big supporter of public art and that we can host such an exciting even as Living Walls every year.

May Photos

In spite of May being a really busy month with work for me (numerous product shoots and gearing up for a big out of town wedding on June 1st) we packed in a ton of fun stuff too! I took so many photos it was hard to edit it down but here are the highlights from last month.

Playing on the back deck in the cute new outfit I sewed for her.

With daddy at the botanical gardens

Peekaboo!

Visiting her grandparents and great grandma for mothers day in Knoxville

Knoxville

Sacked out

Gibbs Gardens

Gibbs Gardens

Greek Festival in Marietta

Greek Festival

Botanical Gardens again, for my Dad's birthday this time

Botanical Gardens fountain

Botanical Gardens

At Woody's, getting a cheesesteak sandwich

Botanical Gardens with friends, that membership is really paying off!

Playing with the mirror at the hotel room, the night before Natalie and Phillip's wedding!